The emotional impact of genetic testing and aspects of counseling prior to prescription of oral contraceptives.
BACKGROUND
Oral contraceptives increase the thrombotic risk in women with factor V Leiden. Emotional aspects of genetic testing prior to the prescription of oral contraceptives (OC), aspects of counseling and referral patterns are widely unknown.


METHODS
Two hundred forty-seven women with and 132 women without factor V Leiden were interviewed by questionnaire.


RESULTS
One hundred sixty-one women (65%) with factor V Leiden and 63 (48%) with wild-type factor V responded. One hundred seventy-one women (76%) reported being emotionally disturbed by genetic testing. Eighty percent of women with factor V Leiden and 16% of women with wild-type factor V were discouraged from OC use. Three percent of women with factor V Leiden were encouraged to take OC. Forty-one percent of women with factor V Leiden used at least one hormone contraceptive method after diagnosis. Only 46 women (29%) with factor V Leiden were counseled about the relevance of the mutation in case of pregnancy.


CONCLUSIONS
Testing for factor V Leiden has considerable emotional impact. Recommendations after testing are not consistently driven by the test result.
Gartner
Verena
V
Department of Internal Medicine I, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, 1090, Austria.
Weber
Michael
M
Eichinger
Sabine
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001317:Austria; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000009:adverse effects; D000075202:Contraindications; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005165:Factor V / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005820:Genetic Testing / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D009154:Mutation; D011247:Pregnancy; D055656:Prescriptions; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000523:psychology; D019851:Thrombophilia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology
D003276:Contraceptives, Oral; C095381:factor V Leiden; D005165:Factor V